We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zach Stich. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zach below.

Hi Zach, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I wish when I was younger and had more free time I had practiced more. For years I never wanted to put in the work to be a real guitar player. Cowboy chords and fire side singalongs were good enough for me. I didn’t need to tear up the fret board and play great solos. Now I wish I had devoted more time to that stuff and to music theory. I still would probably not play that stuff, but I”ve learned as I’ve gotten older its good to know how to do things so that if you want to do them you can. Also with music theory, knowing the rules allows you to learn how to break them better. Career wise, I played some small gigs when I was in college just for some pocket change and beer money, but then I stopped. I wish I would’ve kept it up as a hobby even if I didn’t start writing songs till later. I think I needed some age and wisdom (though I still need more wisdom) to be able to start writing songs that were any good. So there are things I wish I had done sooner.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a singer songwriter from a small town called Swiansboro, Georgia. I live just outside of Atlanta now. I grew up in a musical family. Some of my first memories are from being in a musical production of A Christmas Carol with my older brothers when I was about 4 or 5. My Great Grandmother played piano at church and the organ at a silent movie theater. And the musical talent flowed from their to my Great Aunt Ann who could play piano and guitar – its her vintage Gibson that I play and use to write 90% of the time. My parents are both good singers, and I remember when we would go on long road trips when I was a kid, there wasn’t really satelite radio then and you’d find a dead space between radio station signals and my parents would sing songs to entertain us. Dad would always do a Roger Miller tune. Mom liked Peter Paul and Mary stuff. Sometimes they would play a game with us where we would try to guess the song from obscure lyrics that they would say. If it was a song from like 1955 – 1975 my dad never missed it. My big brothers all have musical talent and I wanted to be just like them so I started playing guitar and singing. My brother Adam had a band when he was in Grad School and I would go see them play sometimes and I thought that was like the coolest thing. They were a pretty good bluegrass band. Played a few festivals and recorded 2 albums. That really inspired me to think that this might be more than just a hobby. When I was in college I played a few gigs for beer money, but I stopped and didn’t start playing again till after 2020. I’m most proud of the album I recorded in 2025. Its my debut Album. It’s called “Till They Put Me In The Ground.” I recorded it at Capricorn Studios in MAcon Georgia. The Allman Brothers Recorded there. Marshall Tucker Band. Charlie Daniels. Marcus King recorded his new album there. I wrote 9 songs and did a cover of a Paul Williams song. My brother Adam came up to the studio for one of the recording days and laid down the bass on some of the tracks. My niece Mary Evelyn Stich sings backup vocals on one of the songs. I played my Aunt Ann’s Guitar on that song too. It’s cool to have so much of my family history and music history poured into one song and one album.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Honestly the best thing that most people can do for artists, bands, and musicians they really like is just give them a follow on their socials and like and share their posts. It costs $0.00 and it helps when bookers look at you for festivals or other gigs. And it gets our music out to more people. So many small independent artists are doing their business managing, social media managing, marketing, and more all on their own. That is a small thing that most anyone can do to help. If you will like and share my stuff on facebook and instagram that’s worth more than a $20 in my tip jar. The $20 is also nice, though. Also just go see artists do things in your local area. We talk all the time about hating that big corporations run everything but you sit at home and watch netflix or you listen to the same bands that everyone else listens to then you’re feeding that system. If you want stuff like that to change you have to be a part of that change. Go to restaurants that have live music and tell them that you go there to support the music and the restaurant for supporting local artists. Also buy merch! Streaming numbers matter for appearances but merch hits my wallet more directly. You’d have to listen to one of my songs almost 2800 times for me to get the same revenue as it would for you to buy my album from my merch table.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a songwriter is playing a listening room and the room goes dead quiet. And then there is nothing but the song. People hearing what you’ve written and being moved by that or having the song remind them of their own memories and their own life experience. Being able to put into words what you feel and have that resonate with other people is a tremendous feeling. Theres that connection too which is something you only get from art. We’re all experiencing something in our own way, simultaneously me as the writer, me as the performer, you as the individual in the audience, and you as the audience collectively.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zachstich.com
• Instagram: zach_stich_music
• Facebook: zachstichmusic
• Twitter: zach_stich
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zachstichmusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5KG4RlS6mpWhd2oKYBPKJZ